


At the crossroad

by Arienhod



Series: Mirror Mark Universe [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Burning Heart AU, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-03 15:34:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13999185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arienhod/pseuds/Arienhod
Summary: Oliver realized they were soulmates when he saw the crown on her shoulder. Felicity realized they were soulmates when her mark started to burn only to be faced with the sight she never wanted to see a few minutes later.Now they were at the impasse.Until he is faces with the possibility of rekindling an old flame.





	At the crossroad

A wide smile spread on Isabel Rochev's face as she opened the door of the hotel room and noticed the blonde woman standing right outside. She was obviously there to inform Oliver it was time for some sort of meeting, like a good Executive Assistant that she is. But Isabel didn't get where she was by playing nice and making friends.

She destroyed those in her path, and Felicity Smoak was just one of many who were in her way.

For a while she was certain Oliver Queen would be an obstacle too, but the fool had proven her wrong. He was just as pathetic as his father, the bastard she allowed to think he was stringing her along when in fact she was in charge of their little affair from the start.

But that ended before she managed to get everything she wanted out of him, and she wasn't pleased with her. It wasn't done until Isabel herself said it was done.

That was why she ensured Stellmore becomes interested in taking over Queen Consolidated. A few well placed remarks, some doctoring of numbers to make the company more appealing to the idiot CEO who thought with the wrong head, and she was right where she wanted to be. On her way to make Robert pay for ending their affair before she was done playing with him.

Felicity's blue eyes moved from the woman in front of her, to the man that stood frozen on the spot a few steps behind. The light that was usually there was gone, and instead he could see contempt, and disappointment. Perhaps even disgust.

Oliver sighed, she never supposed to find out. It was a dumb choice, it just happened, but Felicity never supposed to learn he slept with Isabel Rochev.

The brunette wasn't aware of his inner monologue, her focus was exclusively on Felicity. She flipped her hair behind her shoulder, and casually said, "Your services won't be needed tonight after all. I already took care of it."

After all an EA that wears only short skirts and dresses is only good because of her easy access, the rumors spreading through QC said so, and Isabel was inclined to believe them.

Felicity calmly reached inside her dress pocket and pulled out a paper she offered Isabel. The older woman gaped at it in shock before focusing once more at the blonde who watched her in a way it appeared this happened before and she was bored.

"What exactly are you doing?!" Isabel shrieked.

Felicity shrugged, "A good EA always makes sure her boss pays his whore after sex."

Oliver blinked a few times, bot believing what he was just witnessing. He expected Felicity to shout at him, call him irresponsible, and she would be right to do so, but instead she focused her anger solemnly on Isabel.

"Excuse me, I am worth far more than that."

A snort escaped Felicity, "Yeah, no. My room is exactly across the hall. If you were worth more than 10 bucks I would have heard it."

An older pair that just walked out of the elevator observed the scene for a moment before the woman said something to her husband in Russian. Only Oliver understood her words, but the two women had a pretty good guess based on the look of pure contempt the older woman was giving Isabel.

It was a well known fact this hotel is a first choice for big names all over the world, and that makes it appealing for certain kind of women that gather in the hotel bar hoping to catch an eye of one such big name and earn themselves a nice sum, usually paid by the man's secretary.

The couple entered their room right next to the elevator, but not before sending the brunette another look. Isabel gasped like she was slapped and stormed of towards her own room a floor below. She had never been so insulted in her life.

Oliver laughed as he watched her leave, before he focused back on Felicity. He expected her to be amused by the turn of events too, but instead she was watching him seriously.

"Felicity, I-"

 

"Don't. Not now. I need to process." she didn't clarify her statement, but let him think she simply meant the fact she just learned he slept with the woman that was trying to get her claws on his family company. Now was not the time for a discussion that would without a doubt be long and loud. He needed to focus on the mission ahead, and she needed to find some information.

"What's going on?" a new voice asked, and they both turned to see Diggle standing a few feet away, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Nothing." Oliver answered in the same moment Felicity said, "He's an idiot."

"I agree." Dig said with a shrug, "What happened this time?"

Oliver threw his friend a look before storming off, muttering something about not wanting to be late for a meeting with Anatoly. Dig gave Felicity a smile before following his boss and partner. He was the driver, as well as backup in case something went wrong.

After reaching the parking lot Oliver didn't wait for Dig to open the door for him, instead he did it himself, before getting in the car, and closing it. It was a textbook example of a man who didn't want to talk about it.

But Diggle didn't care.

The moment he was behind the wheel he turned in the seat and faced Oliver.

"I don't want to hear it." the younger man said.

"Tough luck, you're hearing it anyway." Dig responded, "I don't know what happened, what you did before I came... and I don't really care. But you need to get your shit together, because in a very near future Felicity might get fed up and leave, and you will never see her again."

"Maybe that would be for the best." Oliver responded, his gaze focused out the front windowshield, and not on the knowing eyes of his friend.

"A-ha. Sure." Diggle responded before finally turning around and starting the car. Sometimes he felt like he was talking to the stone wall, only it was more likely for the wall to listen to him than Oliver.

* * *

Felicity was standing on the tarmac, the cold wind mussing her hair and chilling her to the bone despite the warm coat and jeans she was wearing.

Diggle was already on the plane with Lyla, safely tucked away in the bedroom in the tail, while Isabel paced in front of the glass door that led to the smaller private terminal building, her luggage by her side instead of inside the plane. She was talking to someone on the phone, visibly upset by whatever she was hearing. Any other time and Felicity would have gloated at the prospect of the older woman not having her way, but today she didn't care about anything but what she read in the science paper that took almost two hours of digging to find.

Oliver barely exited the terminal when, he was a bit late due to Anatoli requesting a brief meeting, when the enraged brunette got into his face. It took him a moment to understand the accusation she was throwing in her face, and when he did he simply walked past her.

The older couple recognized her from some event and informed their granddaughter of what they saw, and the granddaughter informed a friend, who told another friend, who told Isabel's fiance whose father was the CEO of Stellmoor International. And now Isabel was being summoned to the CEO's office in the main offices here in Moscow. 

"That was your plan all along, wasn't it? Although I doubt you are smart enough to think of it all by yourself. Bet your little secretary helped you." all traces of decorum in Isabel's appearance and behavior were gone as she kept throwing accusations, "The bitch had it all worked out."

Oliver stopped in his track and slowly turned to face the brunette, aware of the fact Felicity was quietly observing the whole exchange, "Need I remind you that you were already in my room when I walked in. I didn't invite you, I didn't entice you in any way, shape, or form. Hell, I didn't even want you there."

"But you had no problem with taking advantage of my presence last night." Isabel pointed out, "In fact you enjoyed it." she looked straight at Felicity before adding, "Immensely."

"Last night is nothing more than proof that I'm severely lacking when it comes to better judgement."

"Oh, you are severely lacking in other areas too. Your father was much better." Isabel said with a grin that made Oliver's stomach turn. She could obviously see his discomfort with the revealed information, and decided that would be enough for now. She would continue and torture the fool later, once she dealt with this minor setback and returned to Starling city. 

And she would be back. She wan't done yet with the Queen family.

Oliver didn't bothered with watching her prance away inside, but instead turned away to finally board the plane. And then he saw felicity was still standing there, waiting for him. He expected her to look away, to go up the stairs and take a seat as far away from him as possible. And he wouldn't blame her for it.

But she didn't move a muscle. Not until he was standing in front of her. Then she held out one of her treasured tablets to him, and just said "Read it."

He did. In the plane he read paragraph after paragraph of the science paper whose subject were Mirror marks, the rare subcategory of soulmate marks. And with each word he read he felt like a bigger scum on the planet. There were sections about soulmate madness and high suicide rate among those with Mirror marks, something that caused him to look away from the screen for the first time and focus instead on Felicity who was sitting across the aisle from him, typing something on the second tablet.

He wanted her to say she never felt like that. 

He knew she probably did.

* * *

Next few weeks were awkward. Oliver didn't know what to do, what to say, and just tried not to make things worse. He knew Felicity was his soulmate, he became aware of it the night she walked in an underground casino with a plan to get caught cheating. He had seen the crown that stood out on her shoulder as she was walking towards the gorilla guarding the entrance, and was moments away from stopping her, from taking her away from the danger she was voluntarily exposing herself to. But he stopped himself.

He didn't tell her later that night after rescuing her from Dominic Alonzo, and he didn't tell her after the Undertaking, after he almost lost her and she almost lost him. Instead he left, not at all considering the possibility of revealing to her they were meant for each other.

Felicity could feel his gaze on her. He was supposed to be going over an review of the past trimester finance, but instead he was staring a her for the past ten minutes. And he wasn't even secretive about it. He was leaning back in his chair, and just watched her as she worked. It was one of the times Felicity wished she had an option of turning the glass wall, that separated the EA station and the CEO's office, opaque. Maybe then Oliver would do his job.

Diggle, who stood at the open door of the office, looking very bodyguardy, sighed and shook his head. Yeah, he was aware something happened in Russia, but he had no idea what it was. Felicity misquoted the famous saying about Vegas and left it at that. Oliver grumbled like a cranky bear and ignored any other questions.

He was pretty certain it was connected to the evening when he saw them standing in front of Oliver's room, and whatever was on that tablet Oliver was immersed in during the flight home. But Diggle wasn't certain he actually wanted to know.

Because he was suspecting he wouldn't like it, and it just might result in him approach those two from behind and bang their heads together.

* * *

Oliver punched the training doll one last time, before leaning on it and desperately trying to catch his breath. He was in a good shape, but even his body struggled with the intense training he was forcing himself through. And all in an attempt to forget, at least for a while, the immensity of the information Felicity shared with him earlier that day.

She could have lied, could have kept it from him just as his mother did for nineteen years. But she didn't. Instead she told him why his mother was obviously displeased with her, she told him what Moira basically threatened her with. But the Queen matriarch was wrong, there was no way he would hold Felicity responsible for everything, no way he would push her out of his life. And not only because of the identical marks that tied them together.

He stood by her, because she stood by him. She believed in him.

The doors of the Foundry opened, and Oliver turned just in time to witness Sara stomping down the metal stairs. She seemed to be just as upset as he was. From the way she looked around he suspected she was looking for something to throw, to break. But then she noticed him standing there, observing her, and she took a deep breath to calm herself.

"Laurel threw me out of her place." she informed him, her voice a mixture of anger and regret, "Said I'm a thief who stole her life."

"She feels betrayed because of what happened." Oliver replied, "She was the same way with me after I returned from the island. Only she also informed me she wishes I stayed dead. It took a while, but eventually we made peace with what happened, so give it time. Give her time."

"Thank you." Sara said with a wide smile, "You became pretty proficient at finding just the right words. So... need a partner?"

"Sure." he answered. He's been punching the doll for a while now, but sparring with another person was always better.

But Sara had something else in mind. And Oliver didn't realized it until she walked to him, threw her hands around his neck, and kissed him deeply. For a second he reverted back to Ollie Queen and returned the kiss. But the fog on his mind lasted only until he remembered another. And he pulled back.

"Ollie, what...?"

"I have a soulmate." he said tensely.

Sara rolled her eyes, "Where did that come from? You had the soulmate from the moment you were born, and that didn't stop you from-"

"Well, I'm stopping now." he said, interrupting her, and stepping away, "I have to go."

Oliver didn't jump in the shower like he always did after a long training, instead just put on his shirt, grabbed the leather jacket from the back of the office chair, and marched towards the back exit that led to the parking lot behind Verdant where his bike was parked.

"I betrayed my sister for you!" Sara shouted, now even more angry than she was when she arrived.

Oliver stopped. A sigh escaped him because the truth was painful to admit, but he had to, "And I betrayed my soulmate... I could try and justify myself by saying I didn't know how much I am hurting her, and maybe I would be forgiven for that. But now I know, and I'm not repeating the same mistake."

* * *

Felicity just turned her head slightly towards the front door when she heard someone knocking, but didn't moved from the couch to actually open it and see who it was. She didn't really care.

It only lasted a few seconds, but that was more than she ever wanted to witness. She made a promise never to check the security feed of the surveillance camera she installed in the Foundry. Ever.

Not unless she checked everyone's GPS first, and knew for a fact no one from Team Arrow was down in the basement.

Now she was sitting in her living room, a bottle of Oxycodon on the side able with a glass of water next to it, and waiting for the burning sensation to start. She never tried to regulate it with medicine, but then again she never had an early warning that her soulmate is about to sleep with another woman before.

Although, to be fair, she could have easily took a painkiller pretty much every second night, if they worked against these kind of pain, from age eleven to sixteen. But she might have been a serious addict to those pills by now if she had.

A voice calling her name startled Felicity, and she turned around to see Oliver standing at the entrance of her living room. She blinked a few times because she wasn't sure she was seeing right, but when he didn't end up being a product of her imagination Felicity just gaped at him.

"How did you get in?" was the first thing she asked, followed by, "I was expecting you and Sara to go at it in the Foundry by now."

They both flinched at her words. Felicity because her mouth once more worked faster than her brain, and Oliver because he knew that few weeks ago that would have been exactly what he would do if Sara kissed him out of the blue. As much as he liked to think he changed, some things remained the same even after his return.

"I'm not interested in _getting it on_ with Sara." Oliver responded as he moved to sit next to her. He noticed the bottle of strong painkillers she had at hand, and flinched again.

Felicity nodded in understanding before commenting, "I get it, wrong Lance sister."

Oliver sighed as he took a seat next to her, their tights touching. He noticed she was trying to move away, but the sofa was small and didn't leave her with much maneuver space. So when it seemed like she would stand up and physically walk away from him he reached out and took her hand in his.

Instantly Felicity looked down, startled by the unfamiliar touch. Oliver moved his hand until their fingers were interwoven, and then he squeezed slightly. It was his way of saying he was right here, and not going anywhere. She had him.

All of him.

"I was a wild child, and now I am ashamed of the choices I made. But some of them led me to you, so my teenage years weren't one big mistake."

"You knew." there wasn't a speck of accusation in Felicity's voice, not was it a question. She was simply stating a fact.

"That you were my soulmate, yes. That I was causing you pain, no." Oliver said, before taking a deep breath and adding, "That I will never be the man you need, yes."

Felicity huffed, "What exactly does that entitle? The man I need." she turned and looked at him, "A guy that is my friend and I like to spend time with him? Check. A guy that doesn't consider me just a nerd? Check. A guy I can count on? Check."

"A guy who put your life in danger by his very presence in it? Check."

Felicity glared at Oliver, before adding, "A guy that gave my boring and monotone life a meaning? Check."

"I suck as a boyfriend." Oliver pointed out.

Felicity shrugged, "We'll learn together than, about how to have a functioning relationship. But if you ever again-"

"I won't."

"You didn't even wait for me to finish my sentence!"

Oliver looked on the floor, "You were going to warn me about cheating again."

Felicity smiled sadly. Yes, that is what she was going to say, but she had a feeling that warning was completely unnecessarily. So she grinned, when an idea popped in her head.

"Actually, I was going to say if you ever again skip the Thursday Salmon ladder training, you owe me a twice as long one next week. Just so we're clear."

Instantly Oliver started to laugh, and she joined him, glad that things were looking up for them. Felicity was the best kind of person possible. Kind, friendly, loyal... that's why he loved her.

Oliver's eyes widened at the sudden thought.

He didn't see that one coming.

At the same time he wasn't sure why he was so surprised. She won him over from the second he walked in her office. Even then his heart knew what his head refused to accept.

But no more, now was the time to be the man Felicity believed he could be.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm editing and reposting the Burning Heart AU story collection as individual stories. So if this seemed familiar, it's possible you already read it.


End file.
